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Today’s CSExtra offers the latest reporting and commentary on space related activities from across the globe. Lockheed Martin installs heat shielding on Orion for late 2014 test launch. NASA’s Morpheus planetary lander exercises autonomous landing system. NASA readies new planetary landing system for test flight in Hawaii. Private initiative to revive an aging, long abandoned NASA spacecraft move ahead. Intense meteor shower possible early Saturday. NASA Mars probe spots new crater on red planet. Studies suggest small asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in early 2013 was jolted on collision course. U.S. and Russia space agencies struggle to overcome rift over Ukraine, U.S. sanctions. U.S. Senate committee steers $100 million into 2015 budget to produce U.S. alternative to Russian RD-180 rocket engine. United Launch Alliance Atlas V carries U.S. national security payload to orbit.
Human Deep Space Exploration
Orion in final assembly at Kennedy Space Center
Lockheed Martin (5/21): Engineers begin the installation of heat shielding on the spacecraft assigned to the unpiloted Exploration Flight Test-1 launch scheduled for late this year from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Orion and NASA’s Space Launch System heavy lift rocket are in development to start U.S. astronauts on future missions of deep space exploration.
Lander prototype Morpheus just misses its mark
Florida Today (5/22): NASA’s Morpheus prototype planetary lander takes flight Thursday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. The short flight exercised an autonomous landing and hazardous avoidance system that may one day guide humans as well as cargo to the surface of another planet. Engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center are responsible for Morpheus development.
Unmanned Deep Space Exploration
Before the drop: Engineers ready supersonic decelerator
NASA (5/22): In Hawaii, space agency engineers prepare the new Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project for a test flight that may come as soon as June 3. The saucer shaped device is a prototype for a device to slow heavy, fast moving spacecraft as they land on Mars.
Saving a space probe: Private team seeks to revive abandoned NASA spacecraft
Collectspace.com (5/22): Launched in 1978, the U.S. International Sun-Earth Explorer 3 (ISEE-3) spacecraft is the focus of a crowd source effort to renew contact.
New meteor shower Friday night: How to see it
Space.com (5/22): A significant meteor shower is possible early Saturday as the Earth glides through debris from Comet 209P/Linear. Look near the North Star for the Camelopardalids, or watch via the Internet.
NASA finds fresh Mars meteor crater, likens it to Chelyabinsk impact
Los Angeles Times (5/22): NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has spotted the largest new crater ever witnessed on Mars. The impact measures half a football field across. It was likely left by an asteroid about the size of a car that plowed into the planet, say experts. The size rivals the asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia in February 2013.
Russian meteor: Chelyabinsk asteroid had violent past
Discovery.com (5/22): Studies of fragments linked to the asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk, Russia on Feb. 15, 2013, injuring hundreds of people, suggest the space rock was involved in a long ago collision in space. The collision likely jarred the asteroid onto a course that collided with the Earth.
Low Earth Orbit
Rift divides U.S. and Russia about Space Station
National Public Radio (5/22): Tensions between the U.S. and Russia over Ukraine could have long term consequences for the International Space Station, NPR explains.
Commercial to Low Earth Orbit
U.S. moves to break from Russian rocket dependence
U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (5/22): U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday approves five year plan to develop a U.S. alternatives to Russia’s RD-180 rocket engine. A top Russian government official has threatened to halt the export of the RD-180 to the U.S. as retaliation against economic sanctions linked to the annexation of Crimea.
RD-180 report recommends development of domestic replacement engine
Spacepolitics.com (5/22): Written in response to Russian threats to halt the export of RD-180 rocket engines to the U.S., a Pentagon assessment urges investments to develop a U.S. alternative.
Atlas 5 launches payload for intelligence community
Spaceflightnow.com (5/22): United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket lifts off early Thursday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., with a U.S. national security payload.
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